Entries tagged with: Spoon

NPR have posted their Top 50 Albums of 2014, and like it usually is, it's one of the more diverse year-end lists we've seen so far. There's a lot of the indie that shows up on many of these lists (The War On Drugs, St. Vincent, Spoon, Perfume Genius, Angel Olsen, etc), the hip hop (Run the Jewels, Freddie Gibbs & Madlib, YG, Isaiah Rashad, etc), the big-name pop (Taylor Swift, Mary J. Blige, Miranda Lambert), the metal (Pallbearer) and plenty of others, as well as classical, jazz, world music, a Latin funk band with an album's worth of Black Sabbath covers, and still more.

The Best Albums of 2014 lists keep coming, and now Rolling Stone's is out. It's hard to imagine anyone else picking the #1 and #2 they did, but that's Rolling Stone for you. It's also hard to imagine a list placing the new albums from Weezer and the Foo Fighters so high, but smacking buzz band Ought right in between them. And it seems random that YOB comes in at #50 when no other metal album makes the list, not even the critically acclaimed one by Pallbearer or any of the hugely acclaimed returns from veteran bands like At the Gates, Godflesh and Electric Wizard. Also, don't tell Jack White how much higher The Black Keys placed than him.

We're just over a month away from 2015 and those UKyear-endlists keep pouring in. Now British music mag Uncut has posted their 75 Best Albums of 2014. Looks like their winner is becoming a popular choice for #1, and the rest of their top 10 is split between real-deal veterans (Leonard Cohen [falling just a tad from his 2012 #1 spot], Robert Plant) and rising newcomers (FKA twigs). Elsewhere the list has a lot of the indie-related albums that keep popping up, a good deal of folk/country, more veteran appearances, and a certain opinionated UK duo who have appeared on every UK list we've seen so far and make their US debut this week.

Rough Trade were the first out of the gate with year-end lists but now long-running UK monthly music mag Q has just published their end-of-the-year issue (with cover star Ed Sheeran) which includes their Top 50 LPs of 2014. The War on Drugs' Lost in the Dream comes in at #1. Have you made your list yet? Check out the rest of Q's favorite albums of 2014 below...

The second weekend of ACL 2014 wrapped up on Sunday (10/12), and this time around we caught sets by Pearl Jam, Spoon, Real Estate, The Gaslight Anthem, AFI, Phantogram, Lorde and more. Pictures from the final day of the festival are in this post, the person that climbed up the Capitol building included.

"This is our fourth time taping this show," allowed Daniel after Transference mindfuck "Who Makes Your Money." "We're very proud of that - not going to let that go."

The audience exerted its most thorough burst of energy a moment later when Eric Harvey hammered out the first lines of "The Way We Get By" on a piano. Sans drums, Jim Eno took an ACL camera to the singer through follow-up "The Ghost of You Lingers," then jumped back behind the kit for a supremely crisp "Do You" off the new one. -[Austin Chronicle]

Spoon currently are in their old hometown of Austin, TX for the ACL Fest and in between its two weekends, played a taping of Austin City Limits, the show, at The Moody Theatre. Playing a full set, Britt and the rest of Spoon leaned heavily on their terrific new album, They Want My Soul, with past favorites dappled in as well. Setlist below.

Spoon have two more Austin shows, playing an official ACL late night aftershow at Stubb's on Saturday (10/11) and then the final day of ACL Weekend 2 on Sunday (10/12). All Spoon dates are listed below.

"Thank you for coming over to our nook when the Replacements were playing," Spoon frontman Britt Daniel said. "We were trying to figure out who to yell at about that"...

...swapping between a classy mustard-colored Telecaster and an acoustic guitar, Daniel seemed to have a blast on stage, smiling as he nodded his head along to the layers of synths and keys of "Inside Out" -- the prettiest and least Spoon-sounding Spoon song -- and poking fun at the band's previous work. "Not bad for a song from 'Transference," he said, after "Who Makes Your Money." [Austin 360]

The 2014 ACL Festival wrapped up its first of two weekends on Sunday (10/5) with sets from The Replacements and Spoon (playing at the same time which made for tough audience choices), as well as Jenny Lewis, The Gaslight Anthem, Chromeo, Phantogram, Jhene Aiko and many more. Pictures from those and other ACL Day 3 performers are in this post.

ACL does it again with the same lineups this weekend (Oct 10 - 12). Weekend 1 day 1 pics are here and day 2 pics are here. More Weekend 1 day 3 pics below...

On Tuesday (9/30), Spoon stopped by to present the world premiere of a collaborative video and audio installation between Spoon and artist JD Walsh. In the installation, Walsh deconstructs and abstracts sounds from the track 'Outliers' off Spoon's new album They Want My Soul. FADER presented a Best Coast performance there the same day, and then Dev Hynes and Brooklyn's The Principals unveiled "Ancient Chaos" which was "inspired by the freedom of SONOS speakers to travel anywhere and impact space with sound.... free floating kinetic units embedded with SONOS speakers....A floating landscape that physically expands and contracts in connection with light and sound." The New Yorker's Sasha Frere-Jones hosted a Q&A with the artists afterwards. Dev also played a set.

On Wednesday, (10/1), Aloe Blacc talked about stuff ("Imagine if all the politicians around the world were raised listening to Bob Marley--could be a different place"). The Skins, Flight Facilities and and Mikky Ekko all also played that day.

Thursday brought the rowdiest moment when Danny Brown played a set to the crowd lucky to see the rapper in a venue MUCH smaller than Webster Hall where he played later that night, and much smaller than House of Vans where he plays tonight (10/3).

Today they continue the party with Arcade Fire's Richard Reed Parry and Party Supplies, "very special surprise guests", and more. You can see the remaining schedule (it ends Sunday) at the Sonos Studio NYC RSVP page. More pictures of some of the action so far, below...

Los Angeles music fans are very familiar with the Sonos Studio located there. The speaker company's California event space regularly hosts concerts, DJs, speakers, art exhibits, open bars and more (BrooklynVegan once did an event there). They've also brought that experience to Austin for SXSW, and now NYC will get a taste when a pop-up Sonos Studio NYC will move into NeueHouse from Sept 30-Oct 5. Events include "performers like Talib Kweli, Flight Facilities and Mikky Ekko, Danny Brown, Kandace Springs, and Devonté Hines. Artist installations and conversations with Spoon, Aloe Blacc, Richard Reed Parry, The Principals, Big Noble and others. Creative Social members transform five songs in unimaginable ways. You can also come imagine, design and build your own speaker." Full lineup, schedule and RSVP HERE.

On the heels of their great new album, They Want My Soul, Spoon brought their tour to NYC last night (9/10) for a show under the stars at Central Park Summerstage. (Their second show in town this summer.) You couldn't have asked for a lovelier night, with the band casting tall sillouhettes against white panels behind them. Britt Daniel and the rest of the new lineup of Spoon were in good spirits, with the majority of the set devoted mainly to songs from the new album and 2007's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. Pictures and setlist are in this post.

Where most of Spoon's tour has been with either Hamilton Leithauser or EMA opening, Summerstage got a special undercard. !!! (chk chk chk), whose most recent album was produced by Spoon's Jim Eno, offered up a typically spirited set punky funk, with frontman Nic Offer still in those short shorts. The evening started with Dan Boeckner's new band, Operators (their third NYCshow), who are now a quartet, adding onetime Hot Hot Heat member Dustin Hawthorne on bass. (Related fun fact: HHH's Dante DeCaro was in Wolf Parade.) Even though between Spoon and Operators every member of Britt and Dan's Divine Fits were in on stage at one point or another last night, the band did not make an actual appearance.

More pics from last night's Summerstage show, and Spoon's setlist, below...

It would have been ironic if Kings of Leon didn't get to headline Made in America fest in Philly over Labor Day weekend. They cancelled a bunch of dates leading up the fest due to injury, but promised to be better in time for the Philadelphia show. Luckily (for Kings of Leon fans), they did get to play, despite the fest almost pulling an Electric Zoo and shutting down due to rain on Sunday.

Made in America kicked everyone out around 6:30pm on Sunday, but were letting everyone back in an hour later. Spoon, Girl Talk, Pharrell, Gareth Emory, Tiesto, and Kings of Leon all still got to play, though with slightly different set times than originally planned.

Did you go to Made In America Philly (or LA) this year? How was it?

Watch a video of Kanye's full set from the first day of the festival, below...

Outside Lands in it's seventh installment has completed it's transformation from a traditional rock and roll festival to a Coachella of Northern California. What used to drive Outside Lands were bands like Pearl Jam, Muse, Furthur, and Radiohead. Today, the headliners can be some of the quietest parts of the night. It's the EDM (Electronic Dance Music) that rules almost all festivals nationwide. Trying to get anywhere even close to Flume, Tiesto or Duck Sauce was virtually impossible. Luckily, the stage presence of those shows are next to nothing (besides some creepy visuals of satan that Boys Noize provided) so you can be standing anywhere with your friends and have a great time. This should be no surprise to anyone who's attended a festival in the past few years. The crowds are demanding dance music and I'm often being told that rock shows are just plain "boring". Whether that has to do with the increased intoxication at these festivals or just a shift in the popularity of EDM is for you to decide.

The beauty of the music festival lies in it's diversity in music. It will always be heavily weighed on what's trending, but you'll never go to a major music festival without classic hip hop, vintage rock and roll, EDM, and sometimes a little country. What has really started to impress me is the increasing number of female led rock groups." [Huffington Post]

Outside Lands closed things out with a bang on Sunday as Danielle Haim played drums with The Killers, Flaming Lips covered the Beatles, Patrick Stewart got drunk, and a whole bunch of other sets happened. Those other day 3 sets included Spoon, Cut Copy, Lykke Li, Jenny Lewis and plenty more. Unfortunately, CHVRCHES were a no-show due to border-crossing issues. Pictures of day 3's fun are in this post. Pics from day 1 are here and pics of day 2 are here.

Like we did at Lollapalooza and on OSL DAY ONE (pics) and OSL DAY TWO (pics), we set up in the Toyota Soundwave tent on the festival grounds. On Sunday the activities there included a live interview with Wayne Coyne and 2nd sets from Hiss Golden Messenger, The Bots and Courtney Barnett. Those pictures are in this post too and continue below.

Spoon took their sweet time announcing openers for their Central Park Summerstage show on September 10. (Most dates on the tour are either with EMA or Hamilton Leithauser.) But now it is known that multi-continent funk punks !!! (chk chk chk) and Dan Boeckner's new group Operators will be the night's very high quality undercard. Tickets are still available but if you want to go for free, we've got a pair of tickets to give away. Details below.

This marks Operators third NYC show (the first was BV's Northside showcase, the second was with now tourmates Future Islands). Also, interestingly, this means all four members of Divine Fits (Boeckner and Britt Daniel's combo band) will be performing at this show. In addition to Britt Daniel and Boeckner, Divine Fits guitarist/keyboardist Alex Fischel is now in Spoon, and drummer Sam Brown is in Operators. Maybe we'll get a DF encore?

"This is a pretty cool summer, right?" asked Britt Daniel, smiling like the Cheshire Cat, as Spoon took the stage at the McKittrick Hotel last night (8/3), a surprise record release show for the band's terrific new album, The Want My Soul, which is out this week. The McKittrick is home to Sleep No More, the extremely interactive adaptation of Macbeth and a little of that David Lynch vibe was part of the show. Before Spoon came out, a group of people came throuh the crowd dressed in white robes, and one of them sang a Django Reinhardt-style-arrangement version of the new album's "I Just Don't Understand" before the curtains opened up to reveal the band. (I was also pulled off the elevator into a phone booth where, after being told to make a call, was taken into a secret room where I was given a sacrament. Freaky, disorienting, but fun.) Spoon were in good spirits, having played Lollapalooza just the day before in Chicago. Guitarist/keyboardist Alex Fischel (imported from Divine Fits) had some amp issues but they took it all in stride. They were definitely having a good time, as was the 300 or so people in attendance. (Spoon has been sending out "mystery mailers" to fans, invites to this was one of them.) We got 13 songs, a little more than half from They Want My Soul mixed with favorites like "Small Stakes," "I Turn My Camera On," and "Black Like Me." Setlist is below.

Spoon will be back in about a month, playing Central Park Summerstage on September 10 as part of their upcoming tour. Still no opener announced for that one but tickets are still available.

In other news, frontman Britt Daniels talked with The Guardian about seven Spoon songs that define their sound, which is a pretty good read. Spoon will be in NYC soon for their Central Park Summerstage show on September 10 as part of their upcoming tour. Tickets for that show are still available.

As discussed, EMA is one of the openers on the upcoming Spoon tour, though she doesn't open their NYC date happening 9/10 at Central Park Summerstage (it's also not with Hamilton Leithauser who opens many of their dates, and does play Central Park with Broken Bells). She will, however, play her own NYC show after that tour at Bowery Ballroom on October 5. Montreal's Doldrums are on that show too, making for an excellent double bill. Tickets for that show go on sale Friday (7/25) at noon.

Spoon, who put out two videos from their new album yesterday (7/21), also recently expanded their tour. An updated list of their dates is below. Still no opener announced for Central Park though.

EMA released her great sophomore album, The Future's Void, earlier this year. Doldrums' last was 2013's Lesser Evil. Watch videos from those, with the list of dates, below...

As you may know, Spoon's new album, They Want My Soul, is out on August 5. The band have dropped two new goodies from it today. The first was the music video for "Do You" which was directed by Hiro Murai. If the New Pornographers' "War on the East Coast" wasn't enough post-apocalyptic indie rock mayhem for you, this might do it for you.

The second is a harp-and-strings laden new track "Inside Out" which has a molten video edited by Mau Morgó. You can check that out below too.

Spoon will be in NYC soon for their Central Park Summerstage show on September 10. Tickets are still available.

Spoon's new album, They Want My Soul, is out on August 5. (Preorders in a variety of bundles are available now.) The first single, "Rent I Pay," is out now and can be streamed below. The band have also just announced a September tour that includes a NYC show at Central Park Summerstage on 9/10. No opener has been announced but much of the tour is either with Hamilton Leithauser or EMA. Tickets for that show go on sale Friday (6/27) at noon with an AmEx presale beginning Tuesday (6/24) at 10 AM.

Spoon was in NYC a few weeks back for Governors Ball and an NPR taping. All dates are listed, along with the track stream, below...

NYC's 2014 Governors Ball music festival continued on Randall's Island yesterday (6/7) after kicking off on Friday. Saturday included sets from Jack White, Skrillex, Spoon, The Strokes (including Comedown Machine material for their second time and an encore of "New York City Cops"), Disclosure, Broken Bells, Chance the Rapper, Classixx, Lucius, Deafheaven, Tanlines, RJD2, Diarrhea Planet and more. A set of day 2 pictures are in this post (plus more coming soon). Strokes pictures are HERE.

Governors Ball wraps up today with Vampire Weekend, Interpol, James Blake, The Kills, Tyler the Creator, Earl Sweatshirt and more. Day 1 pics here. Strokes HERE. More of day 2 below...

Spoon, who have a new album (on a new label) out this August, are in NYC for Governors Ball where they'll play on Saturday (6/7). While in town, they'll tape a concert for NPR's "All Songs Considered" on Monday (6/9) at Le Poisson Rouge. This is an afternoon taping with doors at 1 PM and the the taping beginning at 2 PM. It's free and 18+ with RSVP (entry not guaranteed, based on capacity).

One of the band's new songs will be broadcast live on NPR on Monday afternoon, the rest of the show is only for the audience.

Spoon have announced their first new album in four years, They Want My Soul, which will be out August 5 on new label home Loma Vista after more than a decade being on Merge. The album was produced by Joe Chiccarelli (who made the new Morrissey album) and Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips, MGMT, etc). The band have been teasing something new -- black posters bearing the words "Spoon R.I.P. June 10" have been on Bedford Ave in Williamsburg for a few weeks -- but you can hear snippets of the new album as part of an "All Songs Considered" interview Britt Daniel and Jim Eno did on NPR.

Here's a bit from the interview:

ENO: Yeah, yeah. The other funny thing about Dave [Fridman], I feel like he's so mild-mannered. We would be like, "Do you think this is too distorted?" And he would be like, "I'm the wrong person to ask about that," 'cause he loves distortion. And he likes things dirty and exciting and crazy and weird.

DANIEL: Yeah, it doesn't even sound like distortion to him.

ENO: Yeah, yeah. And he said after working with The Flaming Lips and doing a lot of those records, things only sounded right when they were distorted. The more work you do, you start getting a sound. But it was funny, 'cause we were sometimes questioning if there was too much distortion. He's like, "I don't know, you know? Wrong person to ask."

As previously mentioned, Jay Z is throwing his Budweiser Made In America Festival in Philly and LA this year, simultaneously on August 30-31. The lineup for Philly has just been announced and includes Kanye West and Kings of Leon as headliners, plus The National, Pharrell, J. Cole, Girl Talk, Spoon, Chromeo, Grimes, De La Soul, Baauer, Danny Brown, YG, Holy Ghost and more. Full lineup below.

The 2014 edition of Portland's MusicFestNW happens August 16 & 17 at the city's Waterfront Park. This year's line-up has been revealed and includes Spoon, Fucked Up, Future Islands, Haim, Phantogram, The Antlers, Girl Talk, tUnE-yArDs, EMA and more. No word on tickets yet but check out the two-day lineup below.

Since we last posted the lineup, The Shaky Knees fest in Atlanta has grown to add The Replacements and more. Tickets also went on sale and are still available. Check out the lineup, headlined by The National, Modest Mouse and Alabama Shakes, in the poster above and the full schedule at the fest's site.

Shaky Knees Music Festival takes place in Atlanta's Atlantic Station, May 9-11, 2014.

The spring edition of the Boston Calling Music Festival is a month away (May 23-25), and they've already announced the fall edition which goes down in Boston's City Hall Plaza from September 5-7. The September lineup, which is listed in full below, includes The National, The Replacements, Nas x The Roots, Neutral Milk Hotel, Spoon, Volcano Choir, The War on Drugs, The Hold Steady, White Denim, Sky Ferreira, Future Islands, San Fermin, S. Carey, Lorde, Childish Gambino and more. 3-day passes go on sale Monday (4/28) at 10 AM.

Tickets (3-day, 2-day and single day passes) for the May festival, which includes Modest Mouse, Built to Spill, Death Cab for Cutie, The Decemberists, Brand New, Kurt Vile, Phosphorescent and more, are still available.

Full September lineup, flyer, and announcement video, and video of Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong joining the 'Mats at Coachella, below...